If your only asset was a truck, and you made your living hauling loads over bad roads, would you load it to the gunnels and run it through mudholes? I thought not. I get the distinct impression that these blokes regularly drive their machinery past the breaking point, then spend days or weeks getting it back on the road. I don’t think they know how to calculate the costs of the breakdowns against the benefits of hauling a few more sacks of chicken feed.

In Cuba, where there have been no imports from the US since the revolution, the white mechanics are still keeping 1949 rolling stock on the road. In Africa, the Negros are taking brand new trucks, and running them into the ground.